So I know I haven't posted in a while. When I get home from class and reply to emails and make dinner, all I want is to lay in bed and watch a movie or read a book, not do homework or write a blog. So as I sit in my apartment and procrastinate my homework, I decided I'd write a blog post. 

Last week was our first week of classes. We spend most of our day in ulpan (Hebrew class). I'm in kita gimmel, the third highest level. I love my class. The teacher is wonderful. She speaks entirely in Hebrew and I'm kind of impressed with how much I understand. We do a lot of partner work (called chevruta in Hebrew) where we speak in Hebrew in a less formal setting and not with the pressure of speaking in front of the class or the teacher. We're working on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. There are a lot of exercises similar to what I did back in my Hebrew class at penn state. And I am so grateful that I took Biblical Hebrew while I was there, as that taught me all the vowels and some of the grammar rules we're currently learning. It's good to hear the same rules explained and reinforced. Last Monday was tu b'av, the fifteenth of the month of av, Israeli valentines day. So one of our homework assignments was to write a short story about something, somewhere or someone we love. I wrote about how I met Elliot in Hebrew. It's pretty cool that I can do that (and that I only had to look up one or two words on google translate). At the end of the week, the four different ulpan classes got together for a small concert. We each picked a song, translated it, and sang it to the rest of the class. Ours was called or (light). We had a lot of fun practicing. We decided on a costume (we each wore a solid color shirt in the colors of the rainbow with the two people in the middle wearing yellow to be the sun (shemesh) and our two guitarists wore white to be the clouds at the base of the rainbow) and choreography (there was a lot of remembering in the verses, so we pointed to our heads and whenever we said shemesh in the chorus we raised a hand over our head like a sun). I think someone took a video and I will try to post that here. It was a lot of fun. And while the teachers said that it wasn't a competition, clearly kita gimmel won. 

In addition to ulpan, I joined the high holiday choir. More than half the class decided to participate in this optional vocal exercise. I haven't been in a choir since high school, and it's good to have this structure back in my life. However, I could do without the sight singing that us non-musical people are expected to be able to do. Some of the cantorial students can't even sight read. So that's an interesting experiences. 

Today we had our second field trip for biblical archeology. I'm not quite sure what I think of this class. Being in the slightly advanced class, my teacher seems to spew a lot of information at us. It's hard to tell what's important and what's not. We had our first quiz on Monday in that class. And I studied my notes and reviewed the readings and then the quiz was on random little facts (most of which I remembered). So I think I did ok on the quiz, but it really gave me no clue as to how to study for this class.  I think our teacher realized that he was all over the place and has been trying to sum up the important points at the end of each topic, but sometimes he forgets and we just get a lot of stories. 

This week was very biblical history centered. We had a trip to the Israel museum on Tuesday that was pretty cool. We looked in the archeology wing and talked about how some of the pieces there fit into the narrative we're working on. Wednesday we had the quiz and three hours of lecture. And today we had a field trip (that started at 7am, meaning I had to be awake at 530 so that I could get up, dressed, eat breakfast and get to school before the bus left--funny story: there's this guy who lives like five minutes from school who didn't make it to the bus on time (seriously?) and the bus left without him. He had to get himself to tel aviv where our second stop was. Moral? Always be early for school trips. Always). So the field trip today was to two tels (man made hills). The sites we went to (Tel Gezer and Tel Qesile) were located important crossroads in ancient times. We examined some of the structures that are still there (standing stones, six-roomed gate, water cistern, philistine temples, and four-roomed house) and went to the Eretz yisrael museum in tel aviv (to look at the exhibits on metallurgy, ceramics, and oil pressing). It was a lovely and informative (very, very formative) but I wish it had started a few hours later. 

After school, I went to the shuk (open air market) for the first time(!) during this trip to Israel. I needed to get the necessary ingredients to make guacamole because Caleb is coming to stay with me for Shabbat this weekend (woot woot) and we are going to my friends house for a Mexican style shabbat dinner. After the shuk, I made my way to my grandmother's friend's sons house because she brought me some stuff from home (thanks mom and grandmom!). My phone died about ten minutes before I got there (not a good sign when you are directionally challenged). Luckily I know enough Hebrew to ask for directions and luckily people in Israel are very willing to help (even in English sometimes). So I found this house and asked for directions to get home (as few turns as possible). There was one turn. And I missed it. So I walked like 20 minutes out of my way. However, there was this older woman who was walking and fell as I was trying to figure out where I was. I went over to her (as I was the only one around) and asked if she was ok. She replied in very fast Hebrew. I asked if she knew English to which she replied no (in English). However, I was able to flag down a car, and the gentleman was very kind to stop and help me. Then another couple stopped and offered to help. I stayed until they found her husband, said than you, and continued getting lost in katamon (a neighboring neighborhood to where I live; at least I knew I was close). After my very adventurous day, I finally made it back to my apartment for a quiet night of studying. 

Hopefully the next post will come sooner. Until then, Shabbat Shalom!

I love the first day of classes. I love getting brand new school supplies and organizing everything and meeting my teachers and it’s probably one of the best days of the year. Ulpan goes from 830 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon with 45 minutes of break spread out in between. It seems overwhelming. I met my kita gimmel (level 3) classmates and our teacher osnat this morning. Our first session (an hour and a half) started out with some introductions and syllabus reading and vocabulary definitions. Before we knew it the first session was done. Wait what? We just started. It was weird, after a 20 minute break and an apple snack, we went back in for round two where we finished the vocab definitions, read the story, discussed the story, and debated the two main questions in the story in pairs before sharing our debates with the class. Then it was time for the break again. Seriously this day was flying. After another break and a sandwich we went back in for the last session where we finished the debates and played a game. For the game, the person who was up wrote 4 numbers on the board. It was then the job of the class to figure out what those four numbers represented. My numbers were 31, 6, 2011, and 2. Can you figure out what they mean for me? After the game, our day was done. It went so quickly! I’m grateful that our teacher knows how to use her time so that we are constantly learning without being bored, like some other classes were. After an extended 45 minute break where I got my homework done, we went upstairs for mincha (afternoon services) and then the day was done. One day down, many to go. I hope they are all as wonderful as today was! 

Friday morning I got to sleep in (woot woot)! I had the day to laze in bed, watch movies, read, attempt to do some school work, and just relax from the craziness that was orientation. In the early afternoon, I showered and dressed for Shabbat and walked to HUC. We spent some time schmoozing before our text study program began. Our interns Brandon and Bess paired us off and gave us a text to study together. My partner Laura and I had a wonderful conversation sharing some personal details and exploring the text together. The text was about the scale of guilt and the scale of merit and how we judge each other and ourselves. It was fitting to examine this at the end of orientation as we begin our journey in Israel together as a class, building our own community. After we came back and discussed our chats, we started kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming Shabbat services). Rabbi Michael Marmur, the provost of HUC-JIR gave a d’var (sermon) on the words eich (how), eicha (another form of how), ayekkah (where are you) and orient. We studied some text and discussed how these words are all related to each other. How the word “how” can have different connotations depending on context and that you cannot really orient yourself if you don’t answer the eicha and ayekkah questions on many different levels. After services, I went home for some much needed sleep.

I woke up Saturday to go to services at HUC. HUC is the reform congregation in the area and is open to a larger community outside of HUC. Services were nice, although I think I like the more intimate services we have within our HUC community a little better. The melodies are more familiar and I don’t know, there’s just a connection I feel with my peers that seemed to be missing Saturday morning. Afterwards, a bunch of us went over to a friends’ apartment for a Shabbat lunch. We all brought food and had a wonderful time just being with each other. After lunch, I went home for an hour or so before I went to a different friends’ apartment for dinner. I really love those days where I don’t have to cook for myself. After dinner, we went to havdallah (separation) ceremony back at HUC. We had time to schmooze outside before we moved into the sanctuary for our “initiation.” Placed on each of our chairs was a tikkun (a copy of the Torah without English). We sat in two circles in silence as we started our ceremony with a wordless melody. At that point, the interns invited the few classmates who had prepared something to share what they had written about the week of orientation and the weeks to come at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem. After they had spoken, the floor opened up to anyone who wanted to share something. I was amazed at how many people spoke, and felt comfortable enough to open up the way they did with us. After the talking and a little singing in between, we started havdallah. This was such an incredible experience. I don’t really know how to put in words what I felt during those ten minutes. We all stood up and put our arms around each other and started singing the prayers. We were swaying and singing and performing the rituals of blessing the wine and smelling the spices and lighting the candle and hearing the sizzle of the candle being extinguished in the wine as Shabbat ends and the new week begins. The spirit, the soul, the emotion that existed in that room during that ceremony was so amazing. I closed my eyes and felt my heart lift up as my classmates were singing and praying. It was just so incredible to be in that moment. It is one that I will cherish for a very long time. 

When we last spoke, I was getting ready for the rooftop tour with Udi. As some of you may know, I am terrified of heights. I hate being up high where I can see the ground below and I really hate being able to see the ground as I am going up (like those metal stairs that you can see through and roller coasters). I don’t know why I have this irrational fear. But I do. So naturally of all the tours available, I chose the one where I had to climb up these kinds of stairs and ride in rickety cramped elevators. The first stop on our rooftop tour was the imka (YMCA to you Americans). The imka is a community building that had live jazz playing when we arrived. We paid our fair to climb the stairs (yes there was a fee for climbing the stairs, although it was half the price as the elevator). There were a lot of stairs. Circular stairs. Without railings. If you recall, this summer I was working as a nanny in a house with a circular staircase and on my first day I slipped on said stairs not only once but twice. So the sight of a circular marble staircase was not that exciting for me. As I started climbing (since there were people behind me) I was moving slowly, getting slightly dizzy, but continusouly moving up none-the-less. Until the marble stairs changed into those rickety metal ones. Joy. I slowed down and warned my friends that I hate heights and these kinds of stairs and kept walking up. These staris were never ending. Until we got to the top. The view from the imka tower was beautiful. We got to see what felt like all of Jerusalem at sunset. See pictures to be posted later. After the imka, we made our way to the old city of Jerusalem. We entered through the new gate just in time for the siren signaling the end of Ramadan. This is significant because we were walking through the Muslim Quarter of the old city at this time. During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink when the sun is up. But after the siren, the Muslim quarter came alive. The vendors were all out selling food and snacks and Ramadan lights (think Christmas lights but shaped like the crescent and star with green and red lights) and a ton of people walking to mosque in the direction opposite to where we were going. Udi (our guide) stopped at one point and made sure we all had his number in case we got separated. We made it through the Muslim quarter to the top of the Austrian hospice (now hostel) for our next sight. We walked to the roof and overlooked the old city. We mostly saw a lot of Muslims out and a about, but it was cool to see the lights from a different perspective. After a quick snack of cookies we moved on to our next stop, Notre Dame (no not the one you’re thinking of, but a hotel and church with a really great wine and cheese bar). We trekked to the top of the hotel for a dark view of the city (my camera phone didn’t have flash so I stopped taking pictures after the first stop) and a late night meal of wine and cheese. We got two cheese platters and everyone got drinks and we had a lovely evening of talking and eating before heading home. It was a really awesome night!

So this past week I finally got to meet my classmates at HUC. Monday was our first official day of orientation. I had most of the morning to myself to wake up, eat, and head over to school for our first event at 4pm. We got to schmooze for a little bit and get to know each other before moving in to the sanctuary for some welcoming words from the director of the program and the head of student life. They spoke about what we should expect from the year and how, while this is only the beginning, we will not believe how fast this year will go and how quickly we will return to these same places and have very similar conversations in just 11 short months. After that we broke into small groups to get to know each other a little better. The interns (Bess, Brandon, and Udi) created questions to have us share our answers to as we went around and introduced ourselves. My favorite question was "what was a significant moment you had in the last year while wearing the shoes you have on right now?" I was wearing the shoes I wore at graduation, and responded accordingly. Other people had much more interesting answers like they wore these shoes when they were traveling the world or they just bought these shoes a few hours ago. Ater our ice breakers, we went outside for a lovely Israeli dinner. It was delicious and good to get to talk to people in an unstructured setting. After dinner, we went for a walk towards the old city and sat while we listened to four HUC ordained rabbis come and speak to us about what we should take away from this year. It was really cool to hear what they and to say about their experiences in Israel just a few years ago while sitting in front of the the walls of the old city which had seen hundreds of thousands of people in its lifetime. 

Tuesday I woke up early (745) to get to school for t'fillah (services). I pretty much had goosebumps during the entire service. I loved praying with these people. Listening to everyone sing with different harmonies, hearing their voices fill the worship hall, and just feeling the warmth of this community was an incredible feeling I can't wait to re experience throughout the year. It just felt right, like I was meant to be doing this with these people in this place. After services, we started our day of expectations. The provost of the university came and welcomed us, then the director of the program laid out some academic expectations. After a coffee break and lunch, we did another round of ice breaker activities before defining our own expectations of ourselves, our peers, and our teachers in the classroom and community. 

So Friday evening, I took it easy. Read a little, wrote my last blog post, and showered. After that, I went with my roommate Nathan to Shabbat service at a synagogue not too far away. After kabbalat Shabbat, we came back to share Shabbat dinner which Nathan generously cooked. I bought dessert when I went grocery shopping with Keren. We shared some delicious food and conversation. My other roommates, Gideon and Jake (who is studying at the Conservative Yeshiva with Nathan) came back from their Shabbat dinner. We hung out for a little when Ben, the guy I'm subletting from came over to move some stuff out of my room. After he left, I unpacked my sheets and pjs and went to sleep. I stayed up till 11! Unfortunately, I slept 14 hours that night, right through Saturday morning services and the lunch plans I had with my roommates. I guess I was tired. The rest of the day I spent cleaning and unpacking my room. I got everything put away and organized (for now). I went to sleep around 1am Saturday night and set my alarm for 845 so I could get up on time to go to HUC for my campus tour. I woke up a few hours before my alarm and laid in bed reading my book because I didn't really want to be up at 630 in the morning (I guess those 14 hours, while they were lovely Friday night, messed up my sleep schedule for Saturday). But I got up, got ready, and made my way to HUC (by myself and without any mistakes!!) There, I met intern Bess and a bunch of classmates for our campus tour. I didn't really learning where anything was on the tour because we just went in a big circle and all the hallways look the same. But we'll see what happens come orientation this week. After the tour, a few of us went to go find a place to take passport pictures which we needed to get student ids and such. Then we headed back to HUC so that we could register for our health insurance and fill out some paperwork for the school. That took about two hours because the lady handling the paperwork could only see one of us at a time and the individual meetings each took about 20 mins. But I got to get to know a few of my classmates a little better while we were waiting in the hall. After that, I came home, made some dinner and went to sleep. Today was Rosh Chodesh Av (The start of the new month Av). Every Rosh Chodesh, the group the Women of the Wall meets to pray at the Kotel (The Western Wall). You may have heard some recent news stories about them as the protests from the haredim have gotten worse since the courts allowed the Women of the Wall to pray at the Kotel with their tallisim and tefillin. I know that a bunch of my classmates went this morning to the busses to get to the wall, and I wish I would have gone with them, I just felt uncomfortable going by myself and not having a functioning cell phone yet, I couldn't connect with anyone to meet me somewhere to walk to the busses together. Hopefully, after orientation this week, my sim card will have arrived and I will be able to make plans with my classmates so that I am not alone. Tonight starts orientation. We have a schmooze session with a welcome from the director of the year in Israel program (YII), a group session to get to know each other a little better, dinner, and services. Well that's all for now, I'll update you later in the week!  

So yesterday around 11am EST we (Lori, Steve, Sarah, Emily, Selma, and Elliot) loaded the car with four bags headed for Israel. This would seem simple if four people were each taking one bag. But I was taking all four. And I only had two hands. So my mom, grandmother, and boyfriend helped me configure a system to strap one bag onto another without it falling off the suitcase while it was being wheeled. That took about 20 mins. We succeeded and then loaded the car with people headed for Newark airport. We arrived around 1245 and I proceeded to check in. We weighed the two big bags. One was 49.5 pounds. The other was 50.5. So we moved one shoe from one bag to the other and I had exactly 50lbs in each bag. I checked in, checked my baggage and headed off to security where I had to say goodbye to my family. It was tearful to say the least. But it ended quickly when we saw a large group of teens making their way towards the very same security check in. I made it through security no problem (not to say I wasn't worried about carrying a years supply of 4 medications with me onto the plane, or that security would stop me when they saw how big my carry on suitcase was). Then I got lunch and went to find my gate, which was securely blocked off and guarded. We had to wait until 230 before they would start checking us into the gate. Everyone had to have their bags checked, get wanded by a TSA officer, and have their passport re-screened by a united airlines staffer. After all that we still had to board the plane which took about an hour. But after all that, I made it onto the plane in one piece. The flight was uneventful, which was good. And we landed on time. I went through passport control, baggage claim, and customs with no problem before meeting my friend Keren, who so kindly met me at the airport. For those who don't know, Keren was my camp counselor about 8 years ago. We have kept in touch throughout that time and I'm so glad that she was the first person I knew when I arrived. We loaded her car with my many bags and headed for Jerusalem, my home for the year. We met my roommates Nathan (a conservative yeshiva student) and Gideon (taking classes over the summer) who were both very nice. Keren's and my next mission was grocery shopping before the stores shut down for Shabbat (around 4pmish, although Shabbat doesn't start until later). There are three grocery stores within five minutes of my apartment. I just got some food to tide me over until Monday when I can go grocery shopping after I've had time to settle. After we dropped the food off, Keren and I went to find HUC, the school where I'll be studying for the year. It's about a 30 minute walk straight down one street next to my apartment (I would have to try really hard to get lost, although knowing me, we'll see what happens). After we made it back to the apartment, I said goodbye for now to Keren, and started relaxing a little after these very hectic days. My goal is to stay awake until about 10pm tonight so that I can get on Israel time as quickly as possible. Orientation starts Monday. Sorry for the long post. Talk to you all soon!

Sarahd.